February 18, 2013

Reading the hemlock leaves

Republicans quickly condemned the reports of a new administration [immigration] plan, calling it "dead on arrival" and "very counterproductive"....

The furor ... offered new evidence that Republicans could use the president’s direct involvement as a reason to reject a potential compromise.

And in 18 months, congressional Republicans will campaign to Latino audiences that the Obama administration and its Democratic allies cynically ignored their promise of immigration reform. Latino audiences won't buy the Republican bamboozlement, but that'll be O.K. with Republicans, since one regular feature of America's electoral system is that only old white rage votes in midterm elections. This rage will be furiously stoked by congressional Republicans' reminder to the already enraged ones that the Obama administration and its Democratic allies did everything they could to enact immigration reform.

This GOP bifurcation of reality and its base will work like a proverbial charm, returning a GOP House of gerrymandered hooligans and recidivist boors. The Senate's new partisan configuration will of course make no difference, since Senate Republicans, whether a majority or minority caucus, tend to dictate that august body's mind-numbing, soul-killing inertia; and besides, even a conscientious Senate is only as legislatively good as its hooligan counterpart.

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Republicans quickly condemned the reports of a new administration [immigration] plan, calling it "dead on arrival" and "very counterproductive"....

The furor ... offered new evidence that Republicans could use the president’s direct involvement as a reason to reject a potential compromise.

And in 18 months, congressional Republicans will campaign to Latino audiences that the Obama administration and its Democratic allies cynically ignored their promise of immigration reform. Latino audiences won't buy the Republican bamboozlement, but that'll be O.K. with Republicans, since one regular feature of America's electoral system is that only old white rage votes in midterm elections. This rage will be furiously stoked by congressional Republicans' reminder to the already enraged ones that the Obama administration and its Democratic allies did everything they could to enact immigration reform.

This GOP bifurcation of reality and its base will work like a proverbial charm, returning a GOP House of gerrymandered hooligans and recidivist boors. The Senate's new partisan configuration will of course make no difference, since Senate Republicans, whether a majority or minority caucus, tend to dictate that august body's mind-numbing, soul-killing inertia; and besides, even a conscientious Senate is only as legislatively good as its hooligan counterpart.